A pregnant mother, due to receive sonogram pictures of her new baby this week, is instead preparing for her husband’s funeral after he was shot dead protecting his young family from a pair of opportunistic robbers.
According to the Dallas Police Department, Juvenal Antero, 24, was shot dead inside of his home on the afternoon of December 30.
His wife, Elizabel, told NBC Dallas-Fort Worth that she had answered the door moments earlier when a man knocked looking for a lend of a plunger for his toilet. The tragic incident unfolded in the Pleasant Grove section of Dallas.
When she rebuffed him, another man came forward with a gun and told her and her son, 4, to get on the ground.
Elizabel tried to shut the door but the armed man shot at her son, prompting Juvenal to dive in front of him, saving his child’s life.
‘My son keeps asking me, when is my dad going to be alive again? Things that no child is supposed to witness or supposed to ask. I don’t wish this on anyone. There are no words that nobody’s words can comfort me. You know, the detective didn’t let me touch his body, or let me hold his hand. He was evidence,’ Elizabel told the station.
A heartbroken Elizabel Antero describes the trauma of losing her husband to gun violence just weeks after learning that she was pregnant with their second child
Juvenal Antero, 24, was killed when he dived in front of a bullet that was bound for his young son, 4
My son keeps asking me, when is my dad going to be alive again? Things that no child is supposed to witness or supposed to ask. I don’t wish this on anyone,’ Elizabel told NBC Dallas-Fort Worth
The family’s home shown here in the Pleasant Grove section of Dallas
Elizabel went on to say that she is 11 weeks pregnant and described her husband’s excitement at the news.
‘He was very excited to go to my appointment on Wednesday, this Wednesday, to hear the heartbeat and get sonogram photos,’ she said.
In a separate interview with WFAA, Elizabel said that her late husband ‘guided’ her through everything.
‘My son needs me to be strong. My unborn child needs me to be strong. It’s hard for me not to have him here because he guided me through everything. He had a heart of gold,’ the heartbroken mother and wife said.
In that interview, she described her husband’s final words. ‘He said, “They hit me. They hit me. I’m going to die. I don’t want to die in here.” We were his everything. We were all that mattered to him,’ she added.
Elizabel went on to tell the station that this pregnancy was so special as she suffered two miscarriages and that the couple had been trying for a second child for years.
‘I’ve suffered two miscarriages. We’ve been trying for these couple of years. It finally happened… I have to welcome this new baby into the world without a father.’
At the time of writing, no arrests have been made in the case as the investigation continues, both suspects fled after the gunfire.
‘I just need you guys to turn yourselves in because what you did was wrong. No one’s life should be taken away because you wanted what we had. You’ll never have what we had or what we continue to have. You’ll never take his place,’ Elizabel told WFAA.
Anybody with any information on the case is asked to call Detective Michael Christian at 214-670-4735 or [email protected].